CHINA - U . S

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday told top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken that the world's biggest economies should be "partners, not rivals" as the two sides pressed for headway on a range of concerns.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Beijing to maintain cross-strait stability on Friday during a meeting with a senior Chinese official, hours before voters in Taiwan headed to polls to choose a new president.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold their first meeting in nearly a year next week on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, officials from the rival superpowers said Friday.

Top Chinese and Russian officials warned Monday that foreign forces were seeking to sow turmoil in Asia and beyond as they opened an international defence conference in Beijing.

Beijing has billed this week's Xiangshan Forum as its answer to Singapore's Shangri-La Dialogue and says that representatives of 90 countries are taking part, including Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview that aired on June 28 she hopes to travel to China to "reestablish contact" with Beijing despite differences between the two countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a second and final day of critical meetings with senior Chinese officials Monday, as the two sides expressed willingness to talk but showed little inclination to bend on hardened positions that have sent tensions soaring.

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Senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats held "candid and productive" talks in Beijing and agreed to keep open lines of communication to avoid tensions from spiraling into conflict, officials said Tuesday.

President Joe Biden opened his virtual meeting with China's Xi Jinping on Nov. 15 by saying the goal of the two world leaders should be to ensure that competition between the two superpowers "does not veer into conflict."

China said on May 24 that its relations with the United States were "on the brink of a new Cold War," fuelled partly by tensions over the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 350,000 people worldwide and pitched the global economy into a massive downturn.